Last week, ALPA's national campaign to oppose the
Norwegian Air Int'l (NAI) scheme went local. More than 80 Orlando-based pilots
signed a petition opposing the Orlando mayor's enthusiastic support for NAI—as
evidenced by Dyer's letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
encouraging approval of NAI's application for NAI's application to provide
low-cost scheduled service in the United States and entry into the Orlando
market. On Friday, February 28, pilots hand-delivered the petition to Mayor Dyer
at City Hall, attracting significant media attention from the Orlando media.
ALPA also launched a moving billboard that was deployed to Orlando's City Hall
and airport to underscore the point that Mayor Dyer has fallen for NAI's dubious
scheme and demanding he reassess his position.

The petition states that "While NAI's public
relations team has been doing its best to spin NAI's DOT application, the fact
is that NAI is offering a bad deal for the U.S. airline industry and a bad deal
for Orlando. Any short-term promises NAI is making are far outweighed by the
long-term costs their business model represents."

Allowing NAI to provide international air service
to Orlando means that many Orlando-based pilots and their families will feel
direct negative effects. In an effort to evade national minimum standards of
labor protection and regulation, NAI is cherry-picking different countries in
which to do business, getting certified in Ireland and contracting pilots
through Singapore while basing the pilots in Thailand.